


All about perspective

by Rona23



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Gen, Perspectives, Words
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-09
Updated: 2018-03-09
Packaged: 2019-03-29 04:18:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13919226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rona23/pseuds/Rona23
Summary: Sometimes it´s just a word that can make someone feel bad about themselves. Even if this someone knows it´s a stupid reason. Sometimes you just cannot help youself.And sometimes? Perspective is all it takes to set things right again.Pidge sure is lucky that Lance knows how words work.





	All about perspective

“You´re such a nerd, Pidge!”, Lance laughed, as he turned towards Hunk. Away from Pidge, who was trying to explain how she created the device that would allow them to play video games. Away from Pidge who was fantasizing about her favorite game again.   
Was Lance trying to see if Hunk was laughing as well?   
However, names.

Pidge blinked. Time stopped, or slowed down at least. Visions became a blur. Words fading out like the whistle of a small blow.  
Years past in a moment, Pidge noticed.   
So much had changed up until now. She was no longer in school, she was no longer a child, no longer the punching bag of her classmates.  
Nobody here to haunt her. Nobody that knew about her problems in school back then.  
But there it was again.  
The name.

Pidge left after that realization. Unnoticed by her friends, as she told them a plausible excuse.  
When she entered her chaotic room, she let herself be swallowed by the big piles of pillows, old clothes and other, more random objects.  
Her eyes stayed open, when she breathed into her blanket.  
Nerd. That´s what they used to call her. And that had been one of the nicest names she´d gotten.  
But obviously this name still stuck.  
Obviously, she still represented people that were obsessed with their interests.   
Even billion of light years far from home, she was still the nerd.  
She breathed again. She knew, this slightly depressed mood would go away after a while. She would have a different perspective of this train of thoughts later.  
She probably wouldn´t even bother it anymore. But right now, the tears were still dwelling up in her eyes.  
She blinked a few more times. If those tears fell, this would be like admitting that the word actually hurt.  
Another breath.

Perhaps she should talk to someone about this. She couldn´t just leave everytime someone was calling her a nerd.  
Since, nerd wasn´t even a real insult. It was just the thought of connecting it to weird people who were obsessed with a certain subject and devoured their whole life to it that frightened her.  
She could just say that she didn´t like the nickname? Wouldn´t they just laugh about that? Well, Hunk probably wouldn´t.  
But Lance? Totally. Keith probably wouldn´t even get it. He never called her a “nerd” anyways. (He wouldn´t dare, after all the times he spend on conspiracy theories that never made sense. But dismissed obvious clues and proof. What a fool.)  
Shiro? Would probably tell her to stop worrying about such stupid things.  
Allura and Coran? Don´t even know what a nerd is.  
Warm hands pressed down on her eyes. Pidge hadn´t even told her hands to do that.  
Sometimes they just knew what they were supposed to do.

“Pidge? Is everything alright?”  
Pidge opened her eyes wide in shock, as she recognized that voice. “Lance? What are you doing here?”, she asked in a tired and exhausted voice that surprised even herself.  
“I am checking up on you.   
Did something happen?”  
Pidge sighed. Now was the moment of truth. Would she trust Lance of all people with her little issue?  
A definite no.

“Nah, I was just tired. Do you know how hard it is to build a whole system for a device that could somehow translate the software of-”  
“Alright, alright. I get it”, Lance laughed at that, relieved to see that Pidge was alright.  
“So, nerds get exhausted, too, huh? I thought people like you wouldn´t even need to sleep”, he grinned.  
But Pidge´s face fell.  
And Lance noticed. But she didn´t say anything. Normally she would have wanted to leave. But this was her room. Her save place. Lance was an intruder. 

“Wait, did I say something -”  
“Don´t call me a nerd!”  
The suddenly said at the very same time. Lance froze for a second. “Sorry, I didn´t get that. Could you repeat it?”  
Pidge suddenly felt the anger rising up inside her. She knew she needed to stop herself now. Just, how?  
Spoiler, she didn´t manage anyway.  
“I said, do not call me a nerd! Do not call me by any of those weird nicknames. Ever. Again. Now leave!”, her voice rose, while her face narrowed to an angry frown.

Lance´s eyes widened.   
Pidge knew, he didn´t deserve this kind of treatment, but she just couldn´t help it. Overreacting in anger had always been a good way to defend herself. The only way she knew.  
That´s the reason why she couldn´t stop herself. 

When she finally stopped herself from almost tearing up, she noticed that Lance was frozen in place.  
“You are not okay.”, he calmly observed. Pidge wanted to throw him out now, but something in his gesture stopped her.  
It was as though he relaxed at that moment. Calming himself, instead of bracing himself for another impact of another swall of harmful meant words.

Perhaps it was the fact that Lance wasn´t laughing about her issue in that moment, or angrily shouting back at her for treating him wrongly.  
Perhaps it was the fact that Lance was openly caring about her, even instead of her issues that calmed Pidge down. Helped her regain her own conscience, while Lance was patiently waiting for her say something.  
“No. I am not.”, she admitted, still kind of afraid that he would laugh about it, when she were to try to explain.  
She sat down again, not noticing that she stood up before.

“Wanna talk about it?”, Lance asked and slowly moved over to her to sit right next to her.  
He didn´t move his gaze from Pidge.  
Pidge, on the other hand stared into her folded hands. “Not exactly.”, she answered and sighed again.  
“Why not.”  
“I- you wouldn´t understand.” Pidge wanted to slam her head against the wall. Way to be a typical teenager diva. Great, Pidge. Really great.  
“Try me.” Pidge let out a frustrated groan as she looked up at Lance again.   
“I was being called a nerd in middle school, okay?! I hated it. End of the story.”  
She waited for Lance´s face to turn into confusion. To hear an “And” plus a questionmark that demanded more. But that face never came.

“How did that story start, then?”, Lance asked and Pidge couldn´t help but stare.  
In that moment Lance averted his eyes from her, leaving her the choice of either answering or not saying anything at all.  
There was no motive behind the way Lance was acting. Pidge could feel that he was being careful and sensitive here and that was something she hadn´t expected from Lance of all people.  
“I- I don´t really know.  
I mean, I was just the smart girl in my class. I- My teachers weren´t as smart as I was and my classmates didn´t like it.   
So they started calling me names.”

“So they called you that, because they were jealous, am I right?”, Lance asked, as Pidge took a moment to reconsider her words.  
She didn´t like the way she put them. This made it sound like she was some sort of genius and everyone else were just dumb and-  
“I- no, yes. I don´t know.” Pidge sighed. There was no way in hiding it. She was smarter than her classmates and teachers. Even if that didn´t really sound nice.

“But that´s not what´s bothering you.”, Lance interrupted her train of thoughts again.  
Pidge looked up at that. For a second this sounded wrong and right at the same time.

“You don´t really hate the nickname, do you?”, he looked at her and Pidge just looked at him for a second.  
“Of course I hate that nickname!”, she said, confusion in her voice. What was his problem now? Did he want to become a professional psychologist or what?  
“You hate that they used that name to distance themselves from you and who you are. They called you down and used the name to make you feel bad about yourself. And now you connect that name to your tortured past.  
As some kind of social manipulation.”  
“Yes, obviously. That´s what I mean. That´s why I hate that nickname. That is also how names work in general.  
Some letters and a certain way of wording things and suddenly you associate something with those words. I know that, Lance. That is basic knowledge.” Pidge rolled her eyes.  
“So you agree, that nerd and genius are basically the same thing.”  
Pidge turned around at that.   
“What?”  
“You said it yourself, didn´t you. You were called the nerd, because you were seen as the smart kid. Do you realize that most of those children basically called you a genius in school?”

Pidge blinked. 

Just because, she realized what Lance had meant by that. If you were to search in a dictonary, the definition of genius and nerd would be quite similar.  
The only difference would be that the word genius was meant in a nice way, while nerd wasn´t.

“But it´s still different.”, Pidge wanted to point out that difference, but she were never to say it.  
“It´s not.  
It´s like you, actually.  
For example, your name is Katie Holt. Still, you choose to name yourself Pidge Gunderson. Those are two completely different names.  
But they describe the same person. You.   
Which name is used doesn´t redefine who or change the way you are.  
Instead the choice of words defines the person who makes that decision. For example, I wouldn´t call you Katie, because you introduced yourself to me as Pidge.  
Your father, on the other hand wouldn´t call you Pidge, because he was the one who named you Katie.

At this point Lance was only rambling, trying to find examples to make Pidge understand the depth of that “general knowledge” about the founding of words.   
But really? Pidge already got it.  
Those guys who called her nerd didn´t just call her that to annoy her.  
No. They never understood her and never tried to either. When they choose to give her that nickname, they decided to distance themselves from her intelligence.  
It was them who drew the line that defined themselves as stupid.   
Exactly. That line was not making her the smart one. It was making them the dumb ones.

“It´s all about perspective, you know?”  
Pidge smiled as she finally looked up at Lance again. “Yeah. It sure is.”

**Author's Note:**

> Remember that comic moment, when Pidge has to fight her teammates and sees Lance as a top priority to fight first?  
> All that good Plance stuff?  
> Yeah, I kind of want to make this a series or multi-chaptered fic that explains how Pidge came to that conclusion.  
> Or simply Pidge appreciating Lance, cause I kind of started to really like Plance? (Multi-shipper ahoi XD)  
> Can be seen as ship or gen. Whatever you like.


End file.
